Important Dates
1. World Hemophilia Day being observed today
- World Hemophilia Day is observed annually on April 17 to raise awareness about the Hemophilia disease and other inherited bleeding disorders.
- The World Hemophilia Day was first celebrated on April 17 by the World Federation of Hemophilia in 1989 to celebrate birthday of the founder of World Federation Hemophilia Frank Schnabel.
- The theme of World Hemophilia Day 2020: ‘Get+Involved’.
Honours & Awards
2. Algerian author wins 2020 International Prize for Arabic Fiction
- Algerian author Abdelouahab Aissaoui has won the 13th International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) with his novel "The Spartan Court.”
- He wins USD 50,000 (£39,950), as well as funding for the English translation of the novel.
- The Spartan Court depicts the story of five interconnected characters in Algiers from 1815 to 1833 from the five different perspectives and challenges the reader to question present reality.
Sports
3. Viswanathan Anand named ambassador of WWF India Environment Education progr
- Five-time World chess champion Viswanathan Anand is the new Ambassador for World Wildlife Fund (WWF) India’s Environment Education programme.
- WWF India's environment education programme was started in 1976 with the Nature Clubs of India (NCI) initiative.
- Presently, environment education programme currently reaches out to over 5,00,000 children across 2000 schools in the country.
Science & Technology
4. CeNS develops compact sensor to detect the heavy metal ions in water
- Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS) has developed a compact solid-state sensor to detect the heavy metal ions in water.
- It is a portable device which can help onsite detection in remote areas.
- Heavy metal ions such as lead, mercury and cadmium pose severe potential threats to living beings as they can easily be accumulated in the body and cannot be detoxified by any chemical or biological processes.
National & International Appointments
5. BSNL CMD P K Purwar gets additional charges of MTNL
- BSNL chairman and managing director P K Purwar has taken over additional charge of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited.
- Purwar took charge as BSNL chairman in July 2019.
- Purwar, a 1990-batch Indian P&T Accounts & Finance Service officer, will retire on June 30, 2025, and is replacing MTNL's Sunil Kumar who is also heading Human Resources (HR) at the state-driven telco.
- This is the third time Purwar has been given charge of MTNL CMD in the last six years.
Summits & Conferences
6. IMFC held through video conferencing
- Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman attended through video-conference the Plenary Meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee, the Ministerial-level committee of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
- The meeting was based on “Exceptional Times – Exceptional Action”.
- The IMFC meets twice a year, once during the Fund-Bank Annual Meetings in October, and again during the Spring Meetings in April.
Obituaries
7. Pro Football Hall of Famer, Willie Davis passes away
- Football legend and NFL Hall of Famer Willie Davis (85 years) passes away.
- He was one of the great defensive players of his era and was a significant contributor to the Packers’ five NFL championship teams during the 1960s.
- He served as the honorary captain for the 2010 NFC Championship Game and Super Bowl XLV, and again for the 2014 NFC Championship Game.
National Affairs
8. Pusa Decontamination & Sanitizing Tunnel inaugurated
- Pusa Decontamination and Sanitizing Tunnel, developed by Division of Agricultural Engineering, ICAR was inaugurated by the Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Framers’ Welfare.
- The sanitization protocol includes hand washing with foot-operated soap and water dispenser and fogging in a sanitizing tunnel for 20 seconds.
- In this tunnel, Quaternary Ammonium Compounds (QAC) are used at concentration of 0.045%.
Summits & Conferences
9. 44th session of World Heritage Committee of UNESCO postponed
- The 44th session of the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO has been postponed due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The session, which is to be hosted by the Chinese government, was scheduled to be held in Fuzhou of eastern China’s Fujian Province from 29th June to 9th July 2020.
- The World Heritage Committee selects the sites to be listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the World Heritage List, List of World Heritage in Danger, and World Heritage Fund.
Banking & Finance
10. RBI cancels the licence of The Mapusa Urban Co-operative Bank of Goa
- Reserve Bank of India has cancelled the licence of The Mapusa Urban Co-operative Bank of Goa Ltd., Goa, to carry on banking business and other process as defined in section 5 (a) and Section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 with effect from April 16, 2020.
- With the cancellation of licence and commencement of liquidation proceedings, the process of paying the depositors of bank as per the DICGC Act, 1961 will be set in motion.
Sports
11. SAI launched 21 days online workshop for coaches
- First session of the 21-day long online workshop for coaches organised by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) in partnership with the National Sports Federations (NSFs).
- The first day session was conducted by Dhronacharya Awardee Sanjeeva Singh and was attended by Rijiju, Union Minister Arjun Munda and Archery Association of India president Arjun Munda.
- Coaches from 16 disciplines from all across the country are taking part in the 21-day workshop amid lockdown.
Banking & Finance
12. RBI announces measures to mitigate impact of COVID-19
- Reserve Bank of India has announced a set of measures to mitigate COVID-19 effect reducing the reverse repo rate under LAF from 4% to 3.75% while the policy repo rate, MSF rate and the Bank rate will remain same as per RBI’s 7th Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement for 2019-20.
- The step is taken in order to maintain adequate liquidity, bank credit flows, financial stress ease and functioning of markets.
- RBI has decided to undertake targeted LTRO of Rs 50,000 crore.
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